


I Will Never End Up Like Him (Behind My Back, I Already Am)

by BabyPorcupine_CutebutDEADLY



Series: Phic Phight 2019 [4]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-11 22:36:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18433517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabyPorcupine_CutebutDEADLY/pseuds/BabyPorcupine_CutebutDEADLY
Summary: Two Ghost Senses suddenly go off at the same time, and the Dannys look at each other. Danny #2 groans."Man, I was hoping to finish calc before dealing with this crap."Prompt by the-trash-prince.





	I Will Never End Up Like Him (Behind My Back, I Already Am)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet" by Fall Out Boy (or "What A Catch, Donnie," depending on how you look at it.)

Danny's deep in the middle of some long-winded calc problem when there's a knock at his door. "Come in!" 

Jazz invites herself in, a plate of sandwiches in her hand. "It's 9:30, you haven't eaten, and you're still going out on patrol tonight," she says in lieu of a greeting.  

He thanks her, realizing he'd gone an alarmingly long time without eating anything, and goes back to his homework. He's _almost_ done, and then he can patrol without worrying about getting up early to finish it in the morning. 

The telltale whisp of cool blue-tinted air seeps past his lips just as he finishes the last problem, and he grins. Something in his life worked out perfectly for once. 

... 

Where the heck is this stupid ghost? 

He realizes that there's a significant number of ghosts that come out of the Ghost Zone with the intention of fighting him, but it's so much more convenient that way, because then he doesn't have to go looking for them. 

He shivers a little as he flies through an office building. Patrolling while intangible is easier because he doesn't have to worry about running into things, and he can pay more attention looking for ghosts. It's still weird phasing through things at a high velocity, though. Intangibility comes with a loss of most sensations—physical objects can't interact with him, but he can't interact with anything either. Flying through something really fast, though, results in a feeling like cold fingers trailing down his back. Jazz's guess is something about sudden density changes and molecular interaction. It's interesting to think about, and he wonders if it'd be useful in space.  

His watch chimes; it's almost his 11:30 curfew. That means he's been looking for this ghost for _over an hour_ without any sign of it. That's ridiculous. He _almost_ wants to give up, because he's never spent this long looking for a ghost. If it's managed to elude him for this long, it probably won't— 

Green. He's suddenly swallowed by a swirling green vortex. A portal? He's so surprised that he regains tangibility and falls out of the other side of the portal in a clumsy roll. He comes to a rest on his back, staring up at his bedroom ceiling. The heck? 

Danny stands, but _woah._ Got a little lightheaded for a second there. Then he turns. 

There's another version of himself, sitting on his bed eating a sandwich with a calculus textbook open on the bed in front of him. 

Danny stares. 

The other Danny stares. 

"Um," Danny finally says. 

The other Danny drops the sandwich and dives for the bedside table, and Danny doesn't realize he's reaching for the thermos until he's already been sucked into it. 

...

Time passes oddly in the Fenton thermos, and Danny has time to think about _what the heck just happened._

The other Danny had been sitting on the bed eating sandwiches and doing calculus... just like he had been an hour-ish before. Is it possible that the portal was a Weird Time Thing? He'd have to ask Clockwork. That is, if he's ever let out of here. He supposes weirder things have happened to him. It's not like time travel isn't possible, he's just used to it being attached to Clockwork somehow, so. There's that. 

If Danny #2 is truly him from an hour ago, then he supposes the reaction made sense? He tries to think of it from the other Danny's perspective; another version of himself tumbles out of a portal and onto his floor. He probably thought it was Amorpho or something, and the best way of dealing with Amorpho is taking him out _fast_ before he can cause a lot of trouble. 

But, Amorpho has red eyes, and his aren't red. He hopes the other Danny realized that.

... 

He's released into a ghost-proof energy cage. Its boundaries shimmer slightly opaque blue, and he knows touching them is a bad idea. 

Standing on the other side of the cage are Danny #2, Tucker, Sam, and Jazz. Well. Danny supposes they're also versions of his friends and sister from an hour ago as well, making them Tucker #2 and so on... ugh. He hates time travel. 

"Who are you?" the other Danny asks. "You're not Amorpho, and you're not... Dan." His eyes widen. "Are you one of Vlad's clones?"

"No!" Danny protests. "No. God, no, thank goodness. Um. This is gonna sound weird, but... I'm you. From the future. Maybe like an hour or two from now." 

"Prove it," Sam demands. 

"Okay. Uh. Jazz came in and gave you sandwiches because it was 9:30 and you hadn't eaten yet." 

"You could have just been in the room watching," Danny #2 says. 

"Ew. Creepy, but okay. Um... what time is it?" 

Tucker pulls out his PDA. "10:32," he answers. 

Okay. Jazz said it was nine-thirty when she walked in, and he'd been working on calc for, what. 20 minutes? 30? But he'd already finished the sandwiches a while before finishing the problems, and this Danny still had a half a sandwich in his hand. So... 

"Your Ghost Sense should go off like. 10 minutes from now? I think?" 

"You 'think'?" Jazz echoes. 

"I mean, I don't exactly glance at a clock every time it happens." 

"Fair point," Danny #2 says. "I believe him."

"What? _Why?_ " Sam protests. 

The other Danny shrugs. "You can just write on me with your lipstick or something so you guys know I'm the real one, and everything works out." The other Danny shrugs. 

Well, okay, that's not fair. He's the real Danny, too, he's just... different. He's not _their_ Danny, but he's still—

Two Ghost Senses suddenly go off at the same time, and the Dannys look at each other. So his guess was off. Danny #2 groans. "Man, I was hoping to finish calc before dealing with this crap." 

...

The others eventually let him go, mostly because Danny #2 wanted them both to go out and try to take care of the ghost ASAP so he could finish his homework. They try the east side of town, since Danny had already covered the other half back in his time. 

He's really sick and tired of this ghost making his life harder. And _now_ he has to worry about getting back to his own time, too, because even though he and this Danny are only an hour apart, that's still one Danny too many in one place at one time.  

He coasts over a building just as a lone ecto blast is shot into the sky off to his left. _Finally._

Then he hears his own voice screaming. 

…

Danny knows he can't save everyone. 

It's a fact of hero-ing. Even with his duplication ability, he's still only one person. Ghosts typically don't have the intention of directly killing people, but... there was a family that got buried under rubble, once, when their car had been badly damaged and they couldn't get out. A building, crumbling from a ghost attack, had fallen on them. Danny's never forgotten them.

They haven't forgotten him either, apparently. 

When he finds Danny #2, he's kicking feebly at the tall, androgynous figure that has him pressed against a building in a one-handed chokehold. The figure is wearing a white cloth around their face and long, flowing Roman-esque robes. Two discs float on either side of them. As Danny gets closer, the figure raises a sword in their other hand. Oh, no.

Still a distance away, Danny pushes himself to fly faster and starts firing ecto blasts at them. The two discs quickly move to intercept the attacks, and Danny accomplishes nothing but getting the figure's attention. 

Danny stops, fists charged with energy as he hovers a few feet away. "Let him go," he demands, keeping a wary eye on the discs. They each have two thin, broken chains hanging from them. If he didn't know any better, he'd say they'd been attached to one of those old-timey scales. Actually, that's too much of a coincidence to _not_ be what they are.

The ghost turns to face him. They have a nose but lack a mouth, and the cloth around their face is actually a blindfold. Danny glances at Danny #2. He looks _bad;_ jumpsuit torn, ectoplasm leaking in more places than one, and another trail bleeding from both a split lip and his mouth. He coughs weakly, freckling the light blue skin of the ghost's hand with spots of green. There are tear tracks cutting through the mess on his face. Danny's stomach sinks.

The ghost's head turns back and forth between Danny and Danny #2, clearly confused as why there are two of him. 

 _'Not a duplicate?'_ The voice is two overlapping ones, a male and female, just a split second apart. They sound familiar, and they echo in Danny's head instead of being spoken aloud. He suddenly feels like his entire soul has been laid bare. Words are impossible. His feet hit the ground as the energy required to stay floating becomes too much. Then he's on his knees. Why... can't he move...?

Another tense moment. 

 _'No matter. Retribution.'_  

The ghost ignores him, and the sword is raised again. Danny tries to speak. A wheeze comes out instead. He puts all his energy into charging up a weak excuse for an ecto blast. It feels like there are thousand pound weights on his arm, but he manages to raise his hand and fire. The blast floats pitifully slow towards the ghost. One of the discs moves once again, lazily this time. The blast fizzles against it. The ghost turns, and Danny detects annoyance despite the ghost lacking an expression.

 _'Intervention? Why?'_  

"N..." Danny whispers. He fails to force the word past his throat.

In his mind's eye, he can suddenly see the giant pile of rubble that's haunted him for months. The crumpled remains of the car underneath the brick and glass is barely visible. The voice(s?) of the figure suddenly click in Danny's head— the parents. The ghost... they're somehow the combined spirits of the parents in the car. They'd been screaming when he last heard them. The toddler in the backseat had already fallen silent. 

For a second, they're his friends and family at the Nasty Burger. 

He's always too late. 

_'We apprentice Justice.'_

The mental image changes to Danny #2's battered face. 

_'Retribution.'_

Because Danny hadn't been able to get there in time. 

He tries to speak again. He's sorry. He hasn't forgotten them. He wishes he could bring them back. He wishes he could have flown faster. 

Please don't do this. 

_'We apprentice Justice. Not Mercy.'_

The sword raises again. 

Time stops, and Danny feels the weight a familiar medallion around his neck. Clockwork appears in his elderly form. He seems forlorn. 

"I'm sorry, Danny," he says. "This is the only way I could save you. Justice's Apprentice has been looking for you for a long time, and wouldn't have stopped until you were dead. So just... stop fighting. Please?" 

Clockwork did this; brought him back, to replace Danny #2. 

Clockwork shifts to his baby form. He pauses, looking hesitant, before saying, "At the very least... when this is all over you still have time to finish your calculus homework." And then he disappears.

Time resumes. 

The sword falls. 

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from  All-hail-trash-prince / KitKat Cat / the-trash-prince: 
> 
> Danny stumbles through a natural portal, only to find... Himself, from about an hour ago?


End file.
